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Minecraft is an awesome game. Those of you who play Minecraft, you know what I mean. Those of you who don’t play Minecraft, I’ll fill you in. It’s what every middle school kid should be doing instead of homework.

Minecraft is a 3-D game made entirely out of cubes. It can be played on the iPod, Xbox 360, and the computer. This game is like a computer version of Lego and was developed in late 2009. All three versions have been updated in the last month. I installed a mod called Tekkit. It’s pretty cool.

You can play in Single Player mode or join a group at a server online in Multiplayer mode. Skitscape’s public server is up and running. However, the spleef sector (one of my favorites) of the server is closed. The IP address is playSkitScape.com.

A creepah! (it’s a plush toy, yay!)

If that’s not convincing enough, watch the videos that the Minecraft players post on YouTube. I will be updating you on these videos in another post.

Now, back to those of you who want to know more about Minecraft. Its front title screen looks a little like this:

The Minecraft Title Screen. The first thing I think when I see this is, “Cube land here I come!”

As far as Minecraft goes, you either “get it,” and you like it, or you miss the point entirely, and you want to change it. My friend Micheal came over during the weekend, and he played Minecraft for the first time. Then he said, “We should make a Minecraft Two, where the goal is to kill each other and get coins to get new weapons to kill each other, and nothing should be made out of blocks because that would be boring!”

“Wai-” I started to say, but he cut me off.

Yeeee-hah! Steve rides the Enderdragon!

“And when we get on, we can just throw bombs at everyone and kill them like that!” and he snapped his fingers.

I thought, “O.K .the entire point of Minecraft is not to kill one another. That’s like just about every other video game! And, second of all, the fact that it’s made up out of blocks is unique!!!”

An NPC bad guy!

My friend Larry, though, totally gets the concept of the game. He is always talking about what he has built. He keeps his fingers crossed that the next update will have armor because he really wants to see himself with armor on. Our friend, Brad, has just downloaded the full version for the iPod.

Before school today, Brad asks, “How do I mine gold?”

Larry answers, “With a pickaxe.”

“But when I mine it with my pickaxe, I don’t get any gold ingots!” Brad says.

“What kind of pickaxe is it?” I ask (hint, hint, wink, wink).

“Stone.”

“You can only mine it with an iron pickaxe!” exclaims Larry.

“How am I supposed to know?”

“Here, just come over to my house tomorrow, and Larry and I will explain the entire game to you,” I say.

You can buy a poster or t-shirt at Minecraft.net. This is a picture of the world according to Minecraft.

There’s a place for both building and PvP in “Minecraftia.” Some servers are creative, and you can’t be killed there. Others servers are survival, and you can battle there. You can even make your own server, where you designate your system as a shared, central point where other players can access the same game world. My friend Craig is going to set up a server for us to play together. Craig has challenged me to a PvP fight. I’ll post the results when we’re finished. This is a good example of how Minecraft lets you meet your friends after school and hang out without ever leaving your house.

If this hasn’t convinced you to download this incredible game, then I don’t know what will. However, if you are convinced, then just go to Mincraft.net to download it for only $26.95. That’s it! $26.95, and then you have it forever! No monthly fees, no cost for updates. Remember, living in block land does not mean you are limited to just cubes. Be creative, and mine, craft, and build!

For all you science nerds, here is the Periodic Table with a severely limited number of elements, complements of Minecraft.